Sunday, June 27, 2010

Hymn to The Brush

The name of this blog Brush to Bolter is particularly accurate as I have done far more with my brush then bolter.  Painting my armies has been the greater part of the hobby for me.  It’s not that I don’t want to play the game, but given the nature of my free time painting at home is a more frequent occurrence then finding a game somewhere.  Now I haven’t painted as much as I would like either, but such is life.  In any case I thought the best way to start my blog is with an intro to my painting set up.  I only claim to have decent painting skills ( You can tell what its supposed to be) if others should deem them to be greater thanks if they are worse hey I’m working on it!  Below I use one of my other hobbies photography to illustrate my interest.  My camera is a Nikon Coolpix 8800 I plan to upgrade to a DSLR but that hobby purchase is planned for a later date.  Apologies if pictures don’t give the details they should.  Each picture featured has some narration as to the rhyme and reason for it as well as anything interesting I thought to add.  Questions are welcomed as well as blank stares and awkward silence.  Kind comments also appreciated thanks!

 So here you see my work station.  I have my main paints organized in plain view so I can see and grab what I need.  On the sides I have all my tools files, pigments, cements etc.  I tend to be picky about my organization so I found these particular racks from a company in Australia.  The exchange rate isn't bad and the shipping didn't take too long.  I believe I got them within two weeks.  I like my area to be tidy and the more I can see in front of me the better I work.  On the desk are some terrain pieces I am priming ( ran out of primer today) and some Tau pieces I'm working on.  The stool is a painters stool which I find comfortable for my leaning in my style of painting.
 Under the desk I have a wide assortment of things.  You see some Golden paints which I used for terrain and bins for assorted flock and bits.  I also have a number of items for my airbrush here as well.
  Here is a shot of the right side.  There you see a close up of my tool rack and some of my main paints Vallejo Game Color.
This a shot of the other side, more pigments and paints here.  You also see the side of my model cabinet here
This cabinet was custom made for my by a friend.  Its made out of spare doors.  The clipboard has a paint comparison chart telling me the equivalent of citadel colors colors in Vallejo, Rackham, Reaper and P3.  I use Vallejo and Reaper the most.  The tins on the side are for the flock I use the most when basing minis.  The magnetic strips where drilled into the side of the cabinet so I could use the magnets attached to the tins.  These tins are mainly intended for spices but work great for flock.
This cabinet is absolutely been essential to my painting.  What I like to do is have my working projects loaded on GW paint stations which I can pull in and out so I can get started painting quickly and finish just as quickly.  Before I had this arrangement setting up a space was more time consuming and cut into my paint time.  I have a spare paint rack and tool rack I can throw on the stations when I want to move away from the desk and still have some organization.  On the other shelves I store models that are in various states of completion from needing to be assembled to final stages of painting.  And that is my arrangement its what works for me and allows me to have a clean comfortable workspace for my hobby.  Now that we have where I paint next time will look at some things I've painted.  Thanks for reading questions and comments are welcomed and appreciated.